As my friends and family know, I adopted Mick Jagger, the rock star long haired dachshund not long after I returned from the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop in Dayton. I came home full of ideas and excited about getting this blog started. Then Mick came home to visit – and it’s been all about the pup ever since.

No regrets! No complaints! I LOVE that little fella! Okay, so even though this has nothing to do with travel, take a look at this little face and tell me you can’t understand why I’ve been distracted:

Okay. The picture says it all. Cutest dog in the world, right?

So this morning I finally shot this banner. I’ve been noodling around ideas on how I wanted to do it and I’m pretty happy with this for now. Best of all, it inspires me to start thinking about what I’m going to write here and to get started practicing shooting little videos I’ll insert with my avatar, Lil Kate. Kind of like Little Jerry Seinfeld, kind of like Lil Kim. Well, really not like any of that. If I thought anyone was actually reading this, I’d ask for suggestions. But lets just call her Lil Kate for now.

I am taking Lil Kate with me on my river cruise later this month. She will join my cousins Carole and Linda, Linda’s friend Diane, and me on an Avalon cruise from Bucharest to Budapest. At the end of the cruise, Carole and I will go on to Vienna for four days. I don’t exactly know how much I will actually like bringing Lil Kate along and having her appear in travel videos, but you know what? This is my blog. If I decide this is stupid, I’ll admit it to you and get rid of her. Sayonara, avatara. I know I will have to be in the right kind of goofy mood to do this – not something I’m feeling at the moment.

But – being a little goofy is definitely part of my DNA so I will be introducing you to Lil Kate soon as I prepare for this trip. Ciao for now.